ISIS bride Shamima Begum could be freed from a Syrian refugee camp in days. The 26-year-old was stripped of her British citizenship in 2019 after travelling to Syria to join the terrorist group as a teenager.
She is currently held in the al-Roj detention camp in north-east Syria. However, a conflict in the area could see her released from the camp, it has been reported. Clashses have broken out between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Islamic State (IS) fighters in the region.
Syrian leader Ahmed al‑Sharaa, who has undergone a dramatic transformation from jihadist fighter to political leader, brokered a ceasefire with the Syrian Democratic Forces after his forces rapidly captured most of the Kurdish‑controlled north-east in a harsh and fast‑moving military campaign.
About 9,000 IS fighters and roughly 40,000 women and children linked to them — including some British nationals — are being held in temporary camps run by the Kurdish forces.
Despite the ceasefire, the government forces continue to gain ground and it’s feared if they capture the detention camps all the prisoners held in them could be freed or escape.
A regional expert familiar with the situation told The Telegraph: “If the camps collapse in a disorderly fashion, there are some people within those camps who are adherents to ISIS and will be out.”
Begum’s bid to be allowed to return to the UK was given a boost recently when the European Court of Human Rights took issue with the UK’s 2019 decision to revoke her citizenship, arguing that the move may have violated her fundamental rights.
By formally challenging the government’s action, the court is essentially questioning whether Britain acted lawfully and proportionately, and whether she was denied proper legal protections when her nationality was removed.
ECtHR judges are now examining whether the UK Government neglected to consider if its actions breached human rights or anti‑trafficking laws, and whether the Home Office failed to factor those obligations in when it barred the former child bride from returning to Britain.
Lawyers for Begum, who left east London to join Islamic State when she was 15, have hailed the step as an “unprecedented opportunity”.